Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
Series: Hemlock #1
Source: Kindle Version
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: May 8th 2012
Age Genre: Young Adult

MACKENZIE AND AMY WERE BEST FRIENDS.
UNTIL AMY WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED.
Since then, Mac's life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac's hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy's killer:
A white werewolf.
Lupine syndrome - also known as the werewolf vius - is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.
Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy's murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy's boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.
Kathleen Peacock's thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filles with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.

Hemlock is one of those books that has been on my tbr for ages, alongside Unearthly, Shadow and Bone and a few others that blew up around the same time. I was always enticed by the general love my friends had for it--but the actual summary didn't really compel me to pick it up immediately.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I left it feeling very confused - did I like this book?? Didn't I like this book???

I swear to god, I can't decide.

I mean, it's not a bad book. It's not a bad story. But at the same time I feel like I spent more time wishing I could just fast forward to the moment Jason's eyes are finally opened, Mac would finally clue it to what everyone but her already knows and exasperated at Kyle's righteous self torture than actually enjoying the plot.

So, basically, I kind of... wanted it to be a completely different story? A feeling that was consistent until the very end of the story, as I wished for a completely different ending as well.

Can you understand my uncertainty? I didn't dislike the book, but at the same time can I say I liked it...?

Also, I was very annoyed with the "romance". Mostly because we are told Kyle and Mac are best friends, right? They have this entire huge history that we never got to experience and their whole relationship is based on feelings that sprang from that history. And yet, I didn't feel like they knew each other so well or were such great friends or were in love for a long while or anything.

So basically - the book tells us they're in love, but I never once felt it.

Not to mention the love-triangle that you can see coming from a country away but still manages to smack you in the head with the whhhy-ness of it.

So, yes, I have complaints, but as you can see - the rating I gave this book is still pretty good. It's because that this book flies by, and I can definitely see most of you guys enjoying it to the fullest. I'm just kind of over a lot of the themes and tropes in this book.

Nitzan★